Neoliberal militarism as regional security: How Israel’s intelligence doctrine weaponizes Arab fragmentation
Original framing: “Israel's vision of regional security rests on keeping Arab states weak” — Middle East Eye
This doctrine echoes the 19th-century ‘Eastern Question’ and British ‘divide and rule’ tactics in the Middle East, where artificial borders and proxy conflicts were used to prevent regional unity. The 1956 Suez Crisis and the 1980s Iran-Iraq War serve as precedents where external powers exploited Arab divisions to maintain control. Even earlier, the Ottoman *millet* system—while not identical—demonstrates how fragmented governance can be weaponized to prevent cohesive resistance. The current framework is not innovative but a repackaged colonial playbook, adapted to 21st-century intelligence and economic tools.
Israel’s intelligence doctrine is not a pragmatic security strategy but a neocolonial survival tactic, repurposing 19th-century ‘divide and rule’ for the 21st century.
By framing Arab states as inherently unstable, it obscures the role of its own military occupation, economic blockades, and covert operations in sustaining this cycle—a pattern seen from the Suez Crisis to the Abraham Accords. The doctrine’s reliance on temporary ‘peace deals’ mirrors the Ottoman *millet* system, where fragmented governance was used to prevent cohesive resistance, and it ignores Indigenous and African models of collective sovereignty that prioritize justice over domination. Marginalized voices—from Palestinian refugees to Bedouin communities—expose the doctrine’s hypocrisy, while trickster figures like Eshu and Coyote reveal its absurdity: treating human lives as pawns in a geopolitical game. The path forward lies in regional sovereignty blocs, truth commissions, and climate-resilient security architectures that treat water, land, and energy as shared assets, not tools of control. Without dismantling this doctrine’s roots in expansionist statecraft, the cycle of fragmentation and conflict will persist, despite the performative ‘peace’ deals.